A Terrible Temptation

A sensational Victorian novel of intrigue, wrongful confinement, and hidden identity, in which schemes over inheritance and reputation ensnare its characters in danger and injustice. Charles Reade, a popular and campaigning novelist known for exposing social abuses, combines melodrama, suspense, and a reformer’s outrage—here touching on the scandal of private asylums used to imprison the sane. Fast-moving and gripping, the novel delivers the twists and moral indignation that made his fiction hugely popular. A representative work from a best-selling Victorian author, A Terrible Temptation blends page-turning sensation with sharp social criticism in the tradition of the great reform-minded novelists.